Tony Lomas says he will be donning a pipe and slippers in the comfort of
retirement before any resolution is reached in the $639bn (£389bn) Lehman
Brothers administration.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), his firm, is in charge of the European assets of Lehman bank – which has become the biggest global bankruptcy of all time – a fitting swansong for one of Britain's most famous corporate undertakers.

The 52 year-old has already seen his fair share of corporate meltdowns, with MG Rover, BCCI and Enron Europe notched up on his insolvency belt. But even Mr Lomas concedes the scale of the Lehman's implosion is unprecedented. "I could easily see these issues going on for the next 10 years – even 20," he said. "And I'm absolutely certain that I would have retired before the case comes to an end."

Mr Lomas admits the initial work is already likely to take longer than his original estimate of 20 to 24 months, more like 30 to 36 months. "I would have loved to be in a position a year on where I could tell the creditor community what I thought the likely outcome of what they were going to recover was. But there is such a great amount of work that needs to be done ... that it is, simply, humanly impossible."

PwC's top operator says there are three legs to what the administrators are trying to achieve: "First we need to realise the house assets for cash; second, we have to identify the community of creditors that are going to share in that – and pay it to them. And third, we have to give back to third parties anything that belongs to them.

"You know what you have to do – and you embark on that process. But in every single work stream you are going to have problems."

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Mr Lomas says the length of the administration process will ultimately depend on the ensuing legal claims and counter claims, which will run into hundreds of billions of pounds, and take decades to resolve.

"These disputes are serious and the quantums being discussed are incredibly serious," said Mr Lomas, who is pursuing some £84bn of assets for the European entity against its US parent group. "The monies involved have a material effect on the creditor community, so it will take a long time to sort out."

Often, this has pitted Mr Lomas and PwC, who manage the European assets (LIBI) against the US holding group, whose administrators are US restructuring firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M).

The American parent accounts for over a third of global Lehman assets, at $230bn, with Europe holding under a third with $180bn and the other 74 international proceedings accounting for the balance.

Much of the most complex and levered transactions written on Lehman's US books were executed in Europe. Ann Cairns, managing director of A&M heads the recovery programme for those assets.

"We have billions and billion of dollars tied up here," says Ms Cairns an ex-Citibank employee who moved into restructuring.

"Banks operate globally. But when the music stops the whole thing changes. It becomes a patchwork quilt of different countries with different legal entities, all with different insolvency rules.

"Lehman has been a disaster," said Ms Cairns who is also head of the A&M's financial industry advisory group in Europe.

"In the final weeks there was a lot of planning, but none of that planning was for a liquidation eventuality. Everyone thought it would get rescued.

"Lot's of value was lost as a result of bankruptcy and that initial chaos and the money spent reconciling between one jurisdiction and another will eat into what we can raise for creditors."

A&M was appointed by the Lehman board on September 14 last year and co-founder Bryan Marsal became chief restructuring officer, and interim chief executive of Lehman group.

However, things did not run smoothly to start with. Ms Cairn said she had to fight with PwC for six weeks to gain access to the London building before she could even assess what her job would entail.

However, she says day-to-day interaction has grown more civil in the intervening year. PwC also refused to sign a protocol between all the different administrators, which 13 other firms had agreed to, because it was worried about conflict of interest.

According to Mr Lomas all counterparties have to be treated equally, irrespective of whether they are an affiliate Lehman company. "That is sacrosanct," he said.

With more riches than some sovereign nations and such a vast array of vested interests at stake, this is one bruising insolvency that will go all the way to the final bell.

Mr Lomas will find it hard to depart gently into retirement any time soon.